CO129-345 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 133

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government 130

[B]

CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[August 12.]

SECTION 1.

[26903]

(No. 313.) Sir,

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received August 12.)

Peking, June 26, 1907. I HAVE the honour to inclose in translation copy of a further Imperial Edict which was issued to-day, reiterating the prohibition against the cultivation and consumption of opium.

The fact that it has been found necessary to adopt the unusual course of repeating these instructions so often suggests the inference that the Government is not altogether satisfied with the response they have hitherto received.

(Translation.)

I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN,

Inclosure in No. 1.

Imperial Edict, dated June 26, 1907.

OPIUM is in the highest degree detrimental to the people. In an Edict of last year prohibiting the use of it, the Council of Government were commanded to frame Regulations and to direct all yamêns throughout the country to put a stop to it. In the third month of this year (13th April-11th May) a further Edict was issued, commanding that general instructions be given to act in strict accordance with the Regulations which had been submitted to the Throne, alike in respect of the cultivation, sale, and consumption of opium.

The welfare of the people is a matter of great concern to the Court, and this is a matter which must positively be put through. The Governor of Peking and the Tartar-Generals, Viceroys, and Governors of the provinces are commanded to issue strict instructions to their subordinates to put the prohibition into actual effect, to make it a matter of familiar knowledge in men's houses, to get completely rid of the evil. The Maritime Čustoms should keep a strict watch on the foreign opium which is imported, and the places in the interior which cultivate native opium must annually decrease the amount cultivated, in accordance with the dates sanctioned. It is further commanded that the relative merits of officials in this respect must be recognized. If the instructions are zealously carried out by an official in his own jurisdiction, it is permitted to memorialize the Throne, asking for some encouragement to be shown him. If an official merely keeps up appearances and, while outwardly obeying, secretly disregards these commands, he is to be denounced by name for punishment.

It is also commanded that an annual return of the land under opium cultivation be made, by way of verification and to meet the desire of the Court to relieve the people of this evil.

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